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Sen. Patty Kim and Rep. John Schlegel highlight bipartisan school-safety measures and add bullying notification to bill
Summary
Sen. Patty Kim said she amended Senate Bill 246 to require districts to notify parents and staff about bullying as well as weapon incidents; Rep. John Schlegel called safety the top priority and cited recent state funding for education and school-safety programs.
Sen. Patty Kim and Rep. John Schlegel said bipartisan support is helping advance school-safety measures this year, and Kim said she amended a weapons-notification bill to include bullying notifications for parents and school staff.
“Senate Bill 246… would require school districts to notify parents and school employees that there was an incident that included a weapon,” Sen. Patty Kim said, and she added that she amended the bill “to make sure that school officials and parents would also know about bullying incidents.”
The lawmakers framed the change as part of a broader effort to keep parents informed. Rep. John Schlegel, who noted his background in school leadership, said clear two-way communication with families and trained staff are essential so parents “feel that their interests are being heard and then most importantly that our children are being taken care of.”
Kim said her district visits revealed concrete security steps—single secured entry points, ID checks, locked classrooms and frequent drills—and argued those practices, combined with better information-sharing, reduce risk and give families confidence. She also said the Legislature should pursue extreme risk protection orders (commonly called “red flag” laws) when a student displays serious mental distress and a judge determines a temporary firearm-removal is warranted.
On funding, Rep. Schlegel said the state has increased education spending and that officials must keep evaluating how dollars are used. He told the program that, as stated on-air, the state contributed $18,000,000,000 to public education covering roughly 1,700,000 students last year and that “over $100,000,000” was provided to promote school safety; he urged targeted, strategic deployment of funds rather than ad-hoc spending.
Why this matters: the change would broaden notification requirements so families receive more information when incidents occur in their children’s schools, and the lawmakers said pairing security measures with mental-health supports and clear communication is central to their approach.
The lawmakers closed by urging ongoing collaboration among PSBA, law enforcement and parents to refine practices and funding choices. The episode did not record a formal legislative vote; Senator Kim described the bill as moving through the Senate and emphasized continued evaluation of best practices.
